Institute for Biblical & Scientific Studies

The Bible and Science:
Evolution

Origins of Man

One of the great conflicts between the Bible and anthropology is the origin
of man. Was man created 6,000 years ago by God, or did he evolve over millions
of years? Let's look at the evidence. Dating methods show that the earth
and man are older than 6,000 years.

Australopithecus afarensis

Lived about 3.9 - 3.0 million years ago.

Australopithecus africanus

Lived about 2.5 - 2.0 million years ago.

Homo habilis

Homo erectus

Neanderthal Man

There is a gradual increase in the brain cavity, from Australopithecus
450-500 cubit centimeters (cc) to Neanderthal with 1500-1600 cc. which is
more than triple in size.

Evolution

Evolution means change over time. We see this everywhere. Language is changing
(Old English to Modern English), computers are changing, the earth is changing,
and the universe is changing. Life itself is changing. Bacteria that once
was stopped by penicillin has now evolved to be resistant to penicillin.
Man himself is changing.

In Genesis 1:24 God commands, "Let the earth bring
forth the living creature after its kind" Again the earth not
God brings forth life.

Most admit that "kind" does not mean "species,"
but a larger grouping, and this is only after they are brought forth or
evolved by the earth. It would be better to translate "kind" as
"all sorts of." All sorts of plants and animals were brought forth
from the earth.

Language is evolving

There are three major groups of languages from which all other languages
have originated, except Sumerian. They are named after the three sons of
Noah, Japheth, Shem, and Ham (Genesis 10:1).

Tower of Babel

According to the Bible, it was at the Tower of Babel when God changed man's
language (2300 BC?), but there is no evidence for this. There were different
languages before this time, and new languages have evolved after this time.
It is more likely that the story of Babel reflects an influx of foreigners
into southern Mesopotamian through war and peace times (Fischer, Dick. 1996.
The Origins Solution. Lima: Fairway Press, 341). There is a
similar legend in Sumerian about one language (Kramer, Samuel Noah. 1959.
History Begins At Sumer. Garden City: Doubleday, 222).

Languages have evolved after Babel

From Latin the five Romance languages of today have evolved:

Italian

Spanish

French

Portuguese

Romanian.

Even English has drastically evolved from Old English to Modern English.
See if you can read Old English?

The Bible has Evolved

The Bible was formed over a period of about 1,000 years or more. The books
of the Bible have been written, complied, edited, updated, copied, and reorganized
into the Bible we have today.

The Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls give evidence for the Bible's evolution. Manuscripts
from the Dead Sea Scrolls like 4Q Samuel has fewer vowel letters than later
Masoretic texts. The spelling stems from the post-Exilic period (after the
6th century). Early texts from the time of Moses would have no
vowel letters. Vowel letters began around the 9th to 8th
centuries BC.

The Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) like the magnificent Isaiah scroll closely follow
the MT (Masoretic Text), but there are a few exceptions. For example, Psalm
136 is an alphabetical psalm. Each verse begins with the next letter in
the alphabet, but "N" verse is missing in the MT and KJV. In the
DSS it is there, so somehow a scribe left this verse out.

There are a number of addition Psalms in the DSS than in our Bible. Psalms
1-89 are basically the same are ours in the DSS (Psalm 32, and 70 are absent).
From Psalm 91 on there are radical differences in arrangement, and/or in
different Psalms that have never been seen before (Psalm 90 is not preserved).
There are a total of 15 different Psalms which are not included in our present
Bible, nine of which were completely unknown. None of the Psalm scrolls
found has our present day arrangement of the Book of Psalms.

Another important difference is in the Book of Samuel where it varies widely
and frequently from the Masoretic Text. 4QSama preserves a number
of superior readings that help correct errors in the Masoretic Text (DSS
Bible, 213).

One dramatic example is in I Samuel 11 where the MT and KJV left out the
first paragraph. The Longer reading in the DSS explains what happens in
this chapter. It says:

"Nahash king of the Ammonites oppressed the Gadites and the Reubenites
viciously. He put out the right eye of all of them and brought fear and
trembling on Israel. Not one of the Israelites in the region beyond the
Jordan remained whose right eye Nahash king of the Ammonites did not put
out, except seven thousand men who escaped from the Ammonites and went
to Jabesh-gilead" (The Dead Sea Scroll Bible translated by Abegg,
Flint, and Ulrich page 225). Then verse one of I Samuel 11 starts.

It seems that the Qumran community viewed the Book of Enoch and the Book
of Jubilee as scripture (DSS Bible 1999, xvii).

The book order of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible is different.

The Septuagint, LXX

The LXX gives evidence for the Bible's evolution. The Book of Jeremiah
is 13% shorter than in our present Bible. This is also true in some of the
DDS (4QJerband 4QJerd). There are also variant readings
that reflect a different text type.

I remember having to translate a section of the LXX Jeremiah. I could clearly
tell where a different translator started and stopped his translation by
his style.

Ancient Seals

Ancient seals give evidence for the Bible's evolution especially in the
spelling of names. There are two bullae (impression made by a seal) that
are from Jeremiah's secretary "Baruch son of Neriyahu the scribe"
(Jeremiah 36:32). The bullae say: (belonging) to Berechyahu son of Neriyahu
the scribe"(COS, vol.2, 197 or 2.70). Note the longer spelling of the
name of Baruch. Berechyahu means "YHWH has blessed" (Ibid.). Even
"Yahu" is a shortened form of YHWH.

The designs of the royal seals from Hezekiah? are clearly borrowed
from the Egyptians.

(Picture from the University of Penn Museum)

Theology has evolved

Even in the very fundamentalist schools that I attended, they were taught
progressive revelation. God progressively revealed himself. Yet they will
get upset if you say progressive creation. The theology of progressive revelation
is a 20th century idea (Darwin's influence??).

Even down through the ages one can see the evolution of theology, from
the simple creeds of the early church to the Summa Theologiae of
Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages to Calvin's Institutes of the Reformation.

Churches Evolve

Churches have changed drastically in just the few years that I have lived.
The churches that are thriving are those that are able to adapt. Calvary
Chapels and Willow Creek ministries are examples.

Technology is Changing

I remember growing up during the great space race to the moon. I prayed
that the US would make it to the moon first. I saw a picture of a future
space shuttle, and thought this would never fly. Now the Hubble Space Telescope
is making many new discoveries. The computer was what could only fit into
a large room. Now there are portable hand held ones.

The Earth is changing

The seashore is eroding. Islands are rising and sinking. The ozone layer
is shrinking.

The Universe is changing

Once Mars had lots of water. We can see stars forming, and stars dying.
We can see stars in their different stages of evolution. We can see black
holes sucking in stars and galaxies. We can peer back in time to the very
edge of creation with cosmic background radiation left over from the Big
Bang. The Universe is continuing to expand in size.

Life itself is evolving

The rocks of the earth give fossil evidence for how life has changed over
millions of years. Man is not found in the Cambrian Period, or the Mesozoic
Era, but millions of years later in the Pleistocene Epoch.

Reviews of Icons of Evolution

Charles Darwin

Darwin was born February 12, 1809 in England. In 1831 he went on a five
year survey voyage around the world on the H.M.S. Beagle. One important
stop was the Galapagos Islands. The data collected from this expedition
provided the basis for his theory of natural selection.

The Darwin Legend by James Moore, Baker, 1994.

Darwin's book Origin of the Species was published in 1859.

Darwin's book Descent of Man was published in 1871.

Did Darwin covert on his death bed?

There is a tract that keeps circulating around with the story from Lady
Hope that Darwin converted to Christ on his death bed. This story is not
true. For the full story see the book The Darwin Legend by James
Moore, 1994.